1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet media reading control method and a sheet media reading device that avoid character recognition errors caused by characters being recognized when the sheet medium is skewed while the check or other sheet medium is conveyed through a media transportation path.
2. Description of Related Art
In banks and other financial institutions, checks, promissory notes, and other check-like negotiable instruments (collectively referred to as “checks” herein) submitted for payment or processing are loaded into a check reading device to capture images of the front and back and read the magnetic ink character line, and then sort the checks based on the read results. As electronic processing of such checks has become more common, the captured image data and magnetic ink character data is typically processed by computer and the check information is managed by computer.
A typical check processing device reads the magnetic ink character line and captures images of the front and back of each check using a magnetic head and image sensors (image scanning heads) as the checks are conveyed one by one horizontally standing on edge through a transportation path defined by a narrow vertical channel. The downstream end of the transportation path is connected to a first discharge pocket (first discharge unit) and a second discharge pocket (second discharge unit). Checks from which the magnetic ink characters are read normally are discharged into the first discharge pocket, and all other checks are discharged into the second discharge pocket. Checks that are discharged into the second discharge pocket are conveyed and processed again. A check processing device of this type is taught in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2004-206362.
A check processing device that has a detection unit to detect multifeed states in which two or more checks are simultaneously conveyed overlapping is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2005-225661, and a check processing device having a detection unit to detect when a check is conveyed with the top and bottom inverted or the front and back reversed is taught in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2008-117040.
If the conveyed sheet medium is transported in a skewed position or if the bottom of the sheet is off the bottom of the transportation path in a sheet media processing device such as a check processing device, errors may occur when recognizing characters based on the magnetic ink character information read by the magnetic head. The information read by the magnetic head of the check processing device is processed by the check processing device or is sent to a host computer and processed to recognize the magnetic ink characters contained therein by applying a magnetic ink character recognition process. If the check passes the reading position of the magnetic head while being conveyed in a skewed position (including conditions in which at least a part of the check is above the bottom of the transportation path) through the transportation path, the scanned magnetic ink characters will be skewed and may be incorrectly recognized as different characters by the character recognition process.